If The World Should Stop Turning
by ThatGalaxyNextDoor
Summary: So things on planet Earth aren't going so well. Contrary to the deal made eons ago, Persephone hasn't returned from the Underworld as scheduled. Now Demeter has gone haywire, causing agricultural failures across the whole world until things are set back. And who, exactly, is to do the dirty work? Well, according to a cursed prophecy, the Chosen Six, who are anything but friends.
1. Messages and Arguments

**Here it is, finally! Please tell me if I have anything wrong or need to fix something about a character! Thank you!**

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**Sansa**

"_Do not worry, Sansa. Once this little ordeal is overturned, the underdog gods will be the rulers. And should you succeed and deem yourself worthy, Sansa Wynnor, a place of honor shall be yours," Hecate stated, her proud face looking down on Sansa. _

_Sansa studied her mother in doubt. Glyphs of all kinds roamed around her like a magnetic field, her body humming with magic and power. "How? Last time you promised these things to us, everything failed. Nothing has changed, and we haven't forgotten," Sansa snapped. _

_Hecate's eyes filled with anger, and Sansa was sure that she was pretty much dead. "DO NOT DEFY ME!" she screamed, her voice echoing across the dark cavern that seemed to go on forever. _

"_Would I do that?" Sansa answered smartly, not really caring at the moment. She just wanted to sleep in peace for once without being scolded by her mother every night. _

"_Tell your sister, Aurora, about what I say. She is already out of my reach, it's like she never sleeps," Hecate said in a total mood change. Bipolar much?_

_Sansa rolled her eyes. Of _course_ Aurora had to know about this. Everyone knew she was Hecate's favorite. Well, other than Alabaster. But he was currently gods-know-where. "Whatever. Can I go back to sleep now? I don't even know what you're talking about," Sansa asked, her irritation rising. _

"_Yes, I will leave in a moment," Hecate replied, not sensing Sansa's bad attitude. "Just remember that when the opportunity arises, you and Aurora must grasp it. It is the only way," Hecate said mysteriously. _

"_What do you mean?" Sansa asked, but the dream was already fading._

Sansa woke with a start.

She looked around, but none of her cabin mates seemed to have been disturbed as they were already awake. They were lazily laying on their beds and casting random spells to clean and get ready for the day. Glyphs would occasionally appear and disappear, but this was normal for the Hecate cabin.

They were an odd bunch. None of them shared the same features, personalities, or anything. It was like they were all plucked from completely different parts of the universe, and shoved together and forced to live in harmony. That _so_ worked out.

That was just the thing with magic. It came in all different forms and completely different ways, so naturally, the casters did too. So whatever the gods of Olympus had been thinking when they decided to force Hecate into putting her diverse children all into one cabin, obviously they were on drugs or had been drinking. It didn't take an Athena kid to figure out that this was not working out.

Sansa, being the eldest, was the head counselor of the Hecate cabin. No children of Hecate had ever been on a quest before, so Sansa won without a fight.

"Are you going to use the bathroom first or what? Because the rest of us are waiting," Courtney, a red-haired sibling snapped from her bed, not even looking at Sansa when she talked. She was too busy arranging her shelf of potions.

Sansa shuffled through her bag and picked out an outfit while scanning the room and taking role call mentally; she noticed that Emernce was gone, but she had already informed Sansa that she was going to work out with Obsidian in the morning. Immediately, she noticed who exactly was missing. "Where's Rory?" she asked the cabin loudly.

Fabian, a ten year old with his bed in the corner answered first. "Oh, Aurora left already. Something about using that Alexandria chick's bathroom because it was faster," he answered as if waiting for Sansa's response of anger.

"Isn't that just perfect?" Sansa sighed, walking into the bright voodoo decorated bathroom and slamming the door. She dug out her clothes and slipped them on in frustration, thousands of bitter thoughts running through her mind.

Who did Rory think she was? She couldn't just leave the Hecate cabin like that and not let Sansa know! Was the Poseidon cabin just so much better or something?

Don't get her wrong, Sansa didn't hate her sister. Aurora just irritated Sansa a little. Okay, maybe a lot. As head counselor, Sansa was responsible for watching over Rory, making sure she stayed out of trouble. Ever since Rory arrived at camp, it's always been "Rory's so talented, we're so lucky to have her!" "Aurora is just the sweetest girl!" or "She's got spunk, I like _her_!"

Sansa was proud of her little sister, she was. But maybe she'd like to hear about one of her other siblings for once. Granted that at one point, they had all been traitors to the camp, either accidentally or intentionally, but they all deserved credit. In fact, before Lou Ellen left for Camp Jupiter to go retire, she had hinted around that perfect Miss Aurora Powers had actually fought on the Titan's side.

At least Sansa hadn't full out betrayed anyone. Yet. She still had no idea what her mother's dream message had meant. Sansa was guessing it had something to do with a prophecy.

As she finished getting dressed, she briefly looked in the mirror. As usual, her hair was an utter mess. Sansa pulled out the ponytail and let her dark black hair fall down, straight as an arrow. She quickly ran a comb through it, dabbed on some light makeup to her onyx eyes, and looked herself over for the final time.

She looked reasonably presentable, her usual dark jeans and orange camp shirt with a chain bearing two torches (her mother's symbol) wrapped around. To keep the bad-girl-don't-mess-with-me touch, Sansa wore heeled boots, which worked just like they should.

Sansa strutted out of the cabin, her intention not to go join her friends, but to track down Rory and send her the message from Hecate. It was a weekend, so Sansa didn't have the counselor responsibilities. It was basically free time for everyone after roll call was taken.

Sansa could see Emernce and Obsidian running slowly by the forest, vividly chatting about something. She wished she could go join her two best friends, but duty came first.

Aurora's laugh caught Sansa's attention, and she spotted her and her friends by the volleyball net. Rory was sitting on the benches, her blonde and purple hair gleaming in the sunlight as she held hands with her Aphrodite boyfriend, Noah. Her friends, which Sansa knew only the bare minimum about, were busy playing volleyball and trash talking each other.

Sansa approached them, but Rory apparently didn't notice her presence. Instead, she went on talking Noah.

"Rory," Sansa said, trying to get her attention. It didn't work, so she snapped her fingers. "Aurora. Rory. Powers. Aurora Powers."

Nothing. So Sansa did what she did best. Speaking a quick rapid curse under her breath, the air suddenly filled with the awful smell of cow manure. "Earth to Rory!"

Rory and Noah started to cough and covered their noses. "Sansa! What the Hades is wrong with you?" Aurora snapped, pushing her lithe body off the benches and joining Sansa down at the bottom.

Sansa crossed her arms. "Well, you were too busy paying attention to everything but me, so I improvised," she explained. Rory gave her a glare. "Anyways, I need to talk to you. Alone," Sansa added so that Noah wouldn't follow.

"Okay. Be right back," Rory said to her boyfriend before following Sansa off to the side.

Sansa studied her sister. In the morning sunlight, Aurora's many freckles almost danced across her face. She had chosen to leave her hair down, and it was a curly ashen blonde that Sansa envied at times. The underside was dyed purple, another thing that Sansa could never do. Her sleeves of her camp shirt were folded up and she wore cowboy boots.

Hecate's children were definitely a large variety.

"So… what did you need?" Aurora asked, looking longingly back over to her friends that were playing volleyball.

Sansa shifted her feet. "Something from Mom. She spoke to me in a dream," she started.

Rory's eyes widened and she leaned a little closer, suddenly appearing to care less about the volleyball game. "And… what did she say? Anything about Alabaster?"

Alabaster. The name was so commonly spoken of in the Hecate cabin. Most of her siblings had of course fought on the 'bad side' during the Titan War, and apparently Alabaster had been one of the Hecate children there. He, however, had never come to the camp, preferring to stay solo. Sansa had never met him before, but she was pretty sure Aurora had, adding to her suspicion's about Rory's loyalties during the war.

Sansa shook her head. "No, but around that area. Something's happened with the gods. Something big, like 'table-turning' as Mother put it."

"Does it have to do with the seasons not changing properly? No fertility, almost? No matter how much rain, nothing seems to grow?" Aurora asked, interrupting Sansa's story.

Sansa raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Perhaps. But how would _you_ know?"

Rory shrugged. "I was talking to the Demeter kids yesterday. They said they felt cursed because nothing was growing anywhere. I mean, have you seen the grass around here? That's right, because there's none. I believe it," she stated.

A fly flew in Sansa's face, but with the mumble of a few words it dropped dead like it had been hit with bug killer. Which it sort of had. "Well, that could be it. _Anyway_, Hecate said that some type of opportunity will arise, and that you and I must take it."

"Me? And you? I don't understand," Rory said in desperation, looking at Sansa in a way she never had before.

Sansa could only sadly shake her head. "Neither do I, sister. Neither do I."

* * *

**Alice**

"_And_ it's a kill!" Ally proudly exclaimed as Alexandria spiked the ball over the net and it hit the sand with dignity.

Ryan groaned and went after the rolling white ball. "You _so_ cheated, Alex."

Alex looked over to Ally in disbelief. "Did you just hear that? There's not even any water around! Besides, would I, Alexandria Hayden, cheat?"

"Of course not," Ally smartly replied to satisfy her blonde friend, but then added in a low voice, "Unless it was to show up Ryan!"

Alex didn't hear her, which was probably a good thing. She was too busy making sure that Ryan, Jack, and Erik didn't try to get an advantage over her team. They were playing girls against boys, which almost never ended without some dirty tricks thanks to their demigod powers.

See, Alex and Ryan had this thing going on, as far as Ally could tell. The competitiveness was natural after all, Alex was a daughter of Poseidon and Ryan, a son of Zeus. But no, they played with each others emotions too. Alex had this bad habit of flirting with guys that she obviously only thought of as friends, while Ryan flirted with anyone (or thing) that existed to get back at her.

And that wasn't all. They also tried to see who could disrupt class the best and get kicked out first.

Ally wasn't no daughter of Aphrodite (though she was descended from her, so maybe that's why), but the chemistry between them was so obvious. They were perfect for each other, though Ally was _not _going to be the one to tell Alex that. She'd leave that to Rory.

Speaking of Rory, Ally realized that she had disappeared from her spot next to Noah on the benches. Where was she?

She quickly spotted the curly blonde and purple hair behind the benches, with a sleek black haired girl. Ally remembered Rory mentioning something about her name being Sansa, and she was the head counselor of the Hecate cabin now. Ally wondered what was so important that Sansa needed to talk to Aurora alone.

Ally pushed that from her mind and tried to refocus on the game before Alex blamed her for something that went wrong.

The white volleyball soared over the net as Jack served it. Ally could just tell from the way the ball was turning that it was not going near either her or Alex.

"NO!" Alex screamed dashing wildly towards the falling ball. It thumped as it hit the soft sand, Alex tumbling after it.

The boys on the other side of the net started to laugh and jeer and the two girls. Ally tried to shut them up with a look that said _be-quiet-now-or-suffer-consequences_, but apparently they just didn't care or didn't absorb the message through their thick heads.

It was too late, because Alex stumbled up, sand still covering her bare legs and her blue tank top. "Princey, you've really done it now!" she cried out angrily.

Ally backed up, knowing that this was not going to be going anywhere good unless they fought it out for themselves. Interfering never worked the way it was supposed to.

Ryan just gave Alex a cocky smile and crossed his arms. "Oh, we're using nicknames now? Well, bring it on, Mermaid," he taunted.

"You Airhead!" Alex yelled, punching Ryan through the net. Jack and Erik were being absolutely no help for neither Ryan nor Alex by clutching their stomachs from pure laughter.

Ally just sighed and turned around to walk around somewhere else and let the two blondes figure it out for themselves. She walked past the benches, but Noah, Aurora's brown haired boyfriend, stopped her.

"Hey, Alice? Can you tell Rory that I need to go back to my cabin for a few minutes to settle a chick fight?" he asked, looking over to the Aphrodite cabin with slight dread.

Ally pressed back a laugh. "Why? What are your nitwit sisters fighting over this time?"

Noah rolled his eyes. "A bottle of mascara. Apparently it was imported straight from Italy just for Sarah, but Courtney stole it, and now Andrea says it was hers… yeah, it's pretty stupid."

"Okay, well, I'll pass on the message," Ally said, not believing the stupidity of the Aphrodite children. Just another reason Ally was glad to be a daughter of Athena.

Even though Ally was descended over a long line from the goddess, she was pretty sure she would never understand just what went through those girls' brains sometimes.

Actually, take that back. Ally wasn't completely sure they even had brains.

"Thanks!" Noah called, running in the opposite direction towards the awful pink Barbie house called the Aphrodite cabin.

Ally nodded and continued on her walk, soon finding herself in front of the strawberry fields. Or, at least, what used to be the strawberry fields.

Now, the fields just looked like a dirt valley. All the Demeter and Dionysus kids were working fiercely to make something grow, like they had been doing for the past months. It was just like nothing would fertilize, it refused to.

Camp Half-Blood wasn't the only ones having agricultural problems, Ally knew. The older demigods in New Rome and Camp Jupiter were having equally difficult of a time.

And from the news that Ally had been able to get a hold of from the outside mortal world, things were also failing. Not just the farmers from the Midwest, but the economy was starting to fall as well.

Ally wondered, _What in the world is going on?_


	2. Running Leads To Other Things

******Thank you for your positive reviews! The characters belong to you, and the rest to R.R.! Thank you again, and please tell me if I did something wrong! Onward!**

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**Alexandria**

"Come on, Alex. You couldn't beat us even if you tried, so just admit defeat and let's move on with our day," Ryan said jeeringly, still nursing the spot where Alex had just punched him.

Alex laughed. "How about no? You can't win without cheating, so how about the real losers admit defeat? Because, let's face it, Ryan. You're not _that_ good," she taunted back.

Overhead, the sky started to darken and rumble. That's exactly when Alex knew she had done it. Well, that and the fact that Ryan had ducked under the net and joined her on the other side, his arms wide open in invitation.

"Bring it, Alexandria! Let's fight!"

Tip for the future: When in a fight with two sons of Zeus and one son of Apollo while nowhere near any water source, run.

And that is exactly what Alex did, knowing that at least Ryan would come after her. Which was Alex's main aim, as long as she could reach the river before Ryan caught up to her.

"Move, move, move!" Alex screamed at a group of demigods in the way. She pushed through them, still in a dead run for the forest. She could hear somebody's footsteps trailing behind, but she didn't dare look back.

It had become something of a game for the two of them to carry out with such antics, chasing and fighting each other. Alex knew that she didn't actually mean the fights and that she didn't really want to hurt Ryan, but that didn't mean that she was going to back down when the opportune moment arrived.

After all, _somebody_ had to show Ryan that he wasn't the leader, and no one else was volunteering. So, they were frienemies. And it worked out just perfect.

Most of the time, anyway.

But there were those other times, when Alex just wanted to hang out with him. No fights. No showing each other up. Just hanging out like normal friends. Normal was a scarce word in Alex's life, unfortunately for her though.

_Focus, Alex_, she chided herself as she stumbled into the forest boundaries. She was just happy she had chosen decent running shoes today.

The morning forest was really pretty in Alex's opinion. Back where she grew up, in Nice, France, there weren't really that many forests, so Alex really appreciated the one at Camp Half-Blood. Birds loudly chirped at one another in song, and the light wind softly swayed the leaves and branches. In open spaces between the trees, sunlight streamed in like millions of little spotlights.

Alex's fascination with the forest was short lived, however.

"Hurry up, Jack. She's got to be around here somewhere," a muffled voice that was easily recognizable as Ryan's said, not too far away from the sounds of it.

Alex quickly realized that she needed to get near the river pronto or else she would have to fight against the odds. She could sense its presence already, but she would have to keep an eye out for the two sons of Zeus, as they could easily fly up and scout her out. They weren't the only ones either, she'd watched Erik at the archery contests the Apollo cabin held. Getting hit with an arrow was _definitely_ not on Alex's bucket list.

The treacherous leaves and sticks crumbled and cracked beneath her feet, and for once, she wished that she could fly. It just wasn't fair that flying wasn't included in the nice package of powers she had inherited from Poseidon.

And then, she heard it. The melodious sound of running water, trickling over the rocks and occasionally spilling and splashing onto the sand in small waves.

_The river. _

Alex excitedly jogged towards her home plate, examining the trees nearby to make sure that they weren't currently occupied by any tree nymphs. She didn't have much time though, so hoping the fates were in her favor, she climbed the one nearest to the river and waited.

She let her mind wonder a bit, thinking about just how ridiculous this was. Alex could be attacked at any moment by a monster stashed in the woods, and no one would even know because she had ventured alone.

She blamed Ryan. Ryan, and all his stupid arrogance that Alex just had to set straight. Not to mention all his 'flirtationships' with all the Aphrodite girls that he was constantly bragging about. How he could always get the best girls and couldn't resist his charm.

Jealous? Absolutely not. Alex could do that too, if she wanted. If she really wanted to, she could have his own brother, Jack, as a boyfriend right now. It was no secret that he had a crush on her.

But that didn't matter now, because she sensed their presences. Well, more like she heard Erik's as he walked and felt the atmospheric unbalance as Ryan and Jack took advantage of their demigod powers.

"Alex! Come out and play!" Ryan taunted, peeking around to see if he could spot her.

Alex rolled her eyes. As if. Besides, if they had one inkling of a brain, even if they were all put together, they would have the intelligence to go above the forest and look around in the trees. From their angle on the ground, there was no chance in Hades that she could be identified.

The trio started to make this weird clucking noise and Ryan clapped his hands. "Come out Fishy Fishy! Come out, come out wherever you are," he said, but in a whiny voice like he was speaking to a baby, or even a dog.

Alex didn't appreciate it one bit. She was a human, a seventeen year old human! And she would not be spoken to like anything lesser.

So that's when, naturally, the river exploded into geysers, spraying the three boys and throwing them in all different directions. Alex took advantage of their distraction and jumped out of the tree, which was a good twelve feet in the air, and plunged straight into the river.

For a moment she froze in a state of remorse at the sight of Jack possibly clutching a broken arm, just because he wasn't his fault technically. Ryan taunted her, and Alex stupidly rose to the bait.

But then she was reminded that at any time now, their initial shock would be long gone, and Alex would have no mercy. So, it was time to go.

Alex sprinted out of the woods, trying to make her way out again without tripping over a stupid tree trunk or something. It was hard, because about a million things had decided to run through her head all the sudden. Like how she would be so dead if they caught up. Or that the water nymphs would not be happy at all with her now that she had pretty much just turned their peaceful river into Yellowstone Park.

She was so caught up in her thoughts, in fact, that she nearly ran into a boney girl just outside the woods.

"Hey! Watch where the Hades you're going!" the girl yelled with a glare on her face.

Alex recognized this girl as Jordan McAdams, a child of Ares. And though Ally had told her that Jordan was actually a pretty cool person to hang out with, Alex had heard of the welcoming ceremonies conducted by the Ares cabin when a new demigod arrived. Alex had been at camp for two years and still not received the welcoming, so she was always on the lookout. And yes, this meant locking her cabin door at night.

"Sorry, gotta go!" Alex quickly apologized, aware of the possible situation she could get wrapped into. She didn't want her welcoming ceremony to be assisted by three other vengeful demigods if she didn't get gong.

Alex felt the girl's angry eyes on her back, but at the moment she didn't have time to care. She could see Ally and Rory's figures by the strawberry fields, and Alex figured that maybe she could blend in with the crowd and be unnoticed if she went with her friends.

Ally must've heard Alex approaching, because she turned around with a slightly annoyed look and her arms crossed. "Alexandria Hayden, what _are_ we going to do with you?"

Rory was apparently not feeling sympathetic towards Alex either, because she threw in a sassy, "Yeah, Alex. What are we going to do with you?" echoing Ally. So much for fellow dance partners.

"What? It was Ryan's fault," Alex casually responded, kicking at the dusty dirt covering the fields. She noticed the unusual amount of Demeter and Dionysus kids out working in the hot morning daylight, and also the zero amount of greenery out on the fields.

Ally shifted her feet and opened her mouth to respond, but before Alex and Rory had the chance to warn her (Actually, Alex probably could've warned her in time but she wanted a distraction from the lecture), a muscular Demeter boy, who Alex knew as Carson Williams, carrying a large bag of fertilizer and a bucket of water stumbled right into Ally, knocking her to the ground.

The bag of fertilizer fell to the ground in the most ungraceful way, spilling its contents all over the ground. Alex managed to save the bucket of water by forcing it to stay within the bucket's boundaries, but it cost her all the remaining energy she had left from creating the river geysers, causing her to collapse with Rory barely catching her in time.

But that wasn't even the best part. Collapsing was totally worth it for the scene right in front of her on the ground. Carson, dirty and smudged with mud from the fields had landed right on top of Ally. They were both blushing madly as they struggled to untangle themselves and put as much distance as possible from each other.

Alex, despite her exhaustion, pulled herself up from Rory's hold and attempted to take the water bucket over to the son of Demeter. Rory took it away from her though and handed it over instead.

"Here you go, Carson. Sorry about that, we shouldn't have been in the way," Rory apologized in a steady voice, though Alex could detect a hint of amusement in it.

Carson held out his hand to help Ally up, but she refused and got up by herself and dusted herself off. Carson fiddled with the handle on the bucket, his boyish face still slightly tinged pink. "It's no big deal. Don't worry about it. I don't think anything we do is going help anyway," he said in crushed voice.

"I wonder what's going on?" Ally said, apparently recovered from her personal space violation.

Carson pressed his lips together, like he knew something but wasn't supposed to tell. He must've decided to share, because he leaned forward and dropped his voice. "My sister Isabella says it has something to do with our mom, like she's angry or something. But there's a reason for her anger. The seasons can't change without-"

"ALEXANDRIA!"

Alex flinched, not really wanting to look back to the voice's source. She already knew who it was. Ally and Rory, however, did look behind them.

"What did you do now?" Ally asked with her grey eyes narrowed.

"No time to explain!" Alex said, grabbing her two friends arms and taking off in a dead run. So much for the plan of blending in. "Thank you, Carson!" she called to him as they took of running, but Alex didn't hear a response.

She didn't really know _where_ exactly to go, but they ended up in front of the Big House. Alex's eyes darted around the porch, and she quickly spotted Mr. D., drunk and asleep, on a chair just by the door. Chiron wasn't present, so she assumed that he was helping with lessons or something.

With one look at her confused friends and the followers behind, Alex decided to take the chance. She stepped on the first wooden board, then the second, third, and so on. Ally raised her eyebrows in question, but she and Rory followed nonetheless.

Each creak of the boards felt like a canon going off and Alex was sure that Dionysus would wake and assign them all kinds of fun punishments. But, for once, Zeus's reward to him for assisting so nicely in the Giant War had paid off. Mr. D was too drunk to even notice through his sleep.

Soon, Alex was able to open the screen door. She ushered her friends in, barely catching sight of Ryan and company before closing it again.

"Alex, what is all this about?" Ally stopped her before they could continue on through the house.

Alex hesitated, not sure how to tell her two best friends how she created Camp Half-Blood National Park, if even only for a few minutes. So she just went for the usual; break the bad news in the most unsugar-coated way.

"I created a geyser from the lake that knocked away Ryan, Jack, and Erik. Jack most likely has a broken arm, but I ran before I could see anything else," she said in a casual voice, already walking past them and heading up the stairs.

Ally followed her right up the stairs, but Alex noticed Rory paused down by the fist step. "Where are we going?" Rory asked, her hand tightly gripped around the rails.

"The attic. It's the best place I can think of without thinking. Why?" Alex responded, pushing further up the stairs.

Rory sucked in a breath. "Oh, nothing," she sighed, apparently forcing herself up the stairs. "Some friend," she added, though Alex pretended that she didn't hear that last part. She vaguely remembered something about Rory being claustrophobic, but surely the attic couldn't be that bad.

Finally, Alex could see the trap door that lead up to the attic. It was a strictly forbidden place, as the present Oracle no longer used the attic. Alex really didn't understand why it was forbidden, but she knew that no one had been up here for years, since the Titan War.

Bracing herself for the abundant dust, she roughly pushed it open, allowing about ten pounds of the stuff to go crashing down on the three of them.

Ally shook herself like a dog. "First I get knocked over by Carson into the dirt, now this?"

Alex shared a smile with a wide eyed Rory and climbed up into the opening. "Speaking of Carson Williams, you two sure were blushing. Anything you want to tell us, Alice dear?"

Ally didn't respond until both she and Rory were up in the dusty attic. "Me? With that son of Demeter? Please, we've barely even acknowledged each other in our whole lifetime of coming to this camp. I don't even know him!"

"He sure knows you. Must be the Aphrodite genes showing through the Athena ones," Rory said, picking through an odd table of assorted battle trophies. She picked up a particularly gross and deformed bone, grimaced, and put it back down.

Alex snorted and wiped out the dusty window with a cloth that was laying on the wooden floor. She could see the boys just outside the Big House, maybe debating on taking the risk of going in. "I agree with Rory," Alex confirmed.

"You guys are just being ridiculous. Oh, and by the way, Alex. How are things with Ryan?" Ally retorted, checking the latches on the trap door that lead into the attic.

"Things with Ryan? Are you really suggesting that-"

"Suggesting that you two totally have feelings for each other? Absolutely," Ally said in a light voice, a victorious smile on her face.

Alex looked to Rory for support, but Rory was too busy examining a pink lace scarf that even through all these years filled the attic with a pleasant smell. Alex was positive that she was listening, but she was hiding her face. Who was the bad friend now?

Alex laid down the dirty cloth and started to examine the room for a distraction. It wasn't much of use, because Ally was doing the same thing. They poked around in the rafters, occasionally finding more battle objects, but mostly just dead bugs and the rare snake skeleton.

Alex didn't talk, and no one else did either. Her mind was still reeling with slight betrayal at the fact that her friends thought she had feelings for that _imbecile_ son of Zeus! The nerve! Sure, Ryan was pretty attractive with his confident aura and piercing blue eyes. Not to mention the tall and muscular body either. But that didn't mean that she liked him!

Suddenly, Ally gasped and nearly lost her balance from the window sill she was standing on. Both Alex and Rory went to her attention, rushing to her side.

"What's happened?" Rory asked, eying something in Ally's hand.

It was a scroll. Ally shakily unraveled it, and the three of them gathered around it in a tight circle.

"_The god of death shall see it through_

_That two of the creator of voodoo_

_And one of storms and one of sea,_

_Plus the daughter and the tender of the olive tree,_

_Shall face trials and tribulations abound_

_To find one who won't come back around_

_All for the price of Harvest's need,_

_Double the lives has been decreed_."

Ally dropped the scroll, and it reeled up into its original shape. She pushed her black hair back from her face. "What was that?"

"That, Miss Alicia Crane," a slurred voice said from the trap door, "was a prophecy!"


	3. Life Isn't Fair and That's Not Fair

**And presenting, chapter 3! Thank you guys, you are the best reviewers ever!**

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**Ryan**

The girls had to be around here somewhere. Ryan knew that they can't have disappeared into nowhere.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't entirely true, because Ryan had seen the things Aurora could do, like make things temporarily invisible or make a portal to another location. But Ryan didn't see that as Alex's style.

The only place they could've gone at this point was the Big House, which was currently being guarded by a drowsily moving Mr. D. Ryan looked over to Jack and Erick and pointed his sword towards the door. "Well, what do you say?"

Jack stared at Ryan in disbelief. "Look, I know we're bros and all…"

"What he means to say is, you're pretty damn stupid if you think we can get into there without getting caught," Erick translated to Ryan with a fixed glare. "Besides, Jack's got a broken arm that needs to be set."

Ryan narrowed his eyes. He seriously hated it when Erick stepped in like he was the one in charge. Sometimes it was easier to get along with Alexandria than Erick, which was saying a lot. Ryan didn't ask for his opinion, it was a rhetorical question!

"Fine. I'll go by myself," Ryan stated, turning his back on them and marching towards the front porch. He was still sopping wet from the little river episode Alex had pulled, but that didn't matter as long as he got his revenge. And when he did, even the children of Nemesis would be jealous.

Well, maybe not to that extent. Ryan would never really hurt Alex in any way, it was just part of the game they played. Even it had imaginary rules that were never actually set. Even if there were no rules, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her anyway.

Maybe if she wasn't so god damn amazing and perfect in every way.

_Whoa, Ryan. Where did that thought come from? _He asked himself, but then remembered immediately after.

That's right. His mind, soul, body, everything. So, Ryan had a little problem that he had recently discovered about maybe a month ago.

He, meaning Ryan, _Ryan Princeton_, was in love with _the_ Alexandria Hayden.

It was still taking a little bit of time for him to accept this fully. They'd been enemies ever since she'd come to camp! They'd fought against each other, forced one another to become even more advanced in the struggle to see who was stronger, and grew up into their own personalities together, but as enemies. That was how they lived.

But then things started to change. Whenever Jack obsessively talked about Alex in the cabin at night, so much that their sister Delany had to drown herself in music, Ryan started to feel a weird sensation boiling in his heart. He'd consulted Noah Reed from the Aphrodite cabin about it, and his response was, "It's jealousy, dude. I can't believe it even took you this long to figure it out, man!"

Ryan started to notice the little things about Alex that he hadn't before, like the different ways she braided her hair or the glint in her ocean blue eyes when she accepted a challenge. He found himself beginning to enjoy the retaliating attention she gave him, and tried to make it clear (without being to obvious) to Jack that she was giving the main attention to _him_.

That's when Noah told him, "It's love, man. In my cabin, we call you Rex."

To which Ryan's response was, "What the Hades does a freaking dinosaur have to do with me and Alex?"

Dionysus groaned and pushed aside a bottle of grape wine, snapping Ryan out of his lovesick thoughts that ashamed him so. He was a son of Zeus, he must keep his eye on the game!

Ryan ducked around the greenery surrounding the house, still watching Mr. D.'s every move. Of course, he had to be careful. Mr. D. was a god, and his senses could probably tell whether he was being spied on or not. It was a risk Ryan was willing to take, however, if it led him to the girls.

_Girls, _Ryan cursed as he remembered that now he was the one that was outnumbered rather than Alex. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all to come alone.

Scratch that. He had to show Erick that he wasn't in charge, and by doing this he would prove that he was still the leader at this camp. No son of Apollo had anything on Ryan.

Dionysus fumbled with the playing cards a bit, unsuccessfully trying to assemble them neatly back into the box. After a few minutes of that, he groaned and threw them back on the table and took another swig of the bottle on the table.

But then, something unexpected happened. Mr. D. cleared up and started to act like his usual unpleasant self. Apparently, being the god of drunkenness gave the ability to not be drunk when wanted.

Ryan's breath hitched as Dionysus straightened, stood up from the chair, and promptly walked through the screen door with his intentions clearly written on his face.

Dionysus knew that the girls were inside somewhere. And they were in definite trouble, by the looks of it.

Swallowing that new revelation, Ryan stepped out from his hiding spot behind the bush and pressed his foot on the first wooden step on the old porch. He tried to imagine what exactly had been going through Alex's mind when she had decided to go inside the Big House, but he honestly couldn't figure it out. Women.

And he knew for a fact it was Alex that decided to hide out in the Big House because Ally was too sensible and didn't do stupid things like that and he knew it wasn't Aurora's style to hide in a closed and limited space. Besides, it was just the kind of impulsive thing Alex would do.

The wood threateningly creaked with each step Ryan took, and he was sure Mr. D. would discover him coming in after the girls. Well, if he was going to get in trouble and have to do the dishes, at least he wouldn't be alone.

Once Ryan was in, he was almost immediately able to follow the trial just by the smell of grape wine. It led him to the staircase. And not just _any_ staircase, no, this was the one that led to the forbidden attic.

Forget about dishes, Ryan would be attending a funeral. Dead.

Ryan hesitantly peeked around the stairwell, just in time to catch a great view of Mr. D.'s backside as he climbed up the ladder and joined the girls up in the attic. He decided to take a chance and finished stepping up the stairs until he was just to the side of the attic opening, enough so that he could hear the conversation.

"How old is this prophecy?" Rory's voice said, probably in response to some other statement that Ryan missed. But what was that about a prophecy?

"Eh, couple decades. Doesn't matter, just more brats to do heroic things and die," Dionysus irritable voice answered.

Someone stepped to the side. "Who were the demigods who had to take this?" Ally pressed, making Ryan unconsciously lean closer to the opening.

"What ya talking about? Are you a spawn of Athena or what? This prophecy hasn't been carried out yet. In fact, since you so graciously dug this up, now I have to call a meeting for all you brats so that it can be done with!" Mr. D. complained loudly.

"Well, that's nice," Alex said, speaking up for the first time. "We'll just go now and spread the word. Goodbye! Have a nice day!"

Ryan comprehended what was about to happen a second too late. Alex jumped down from the attic with such force that she slammed straight into Ryan, with her friends right behind.

"Ryan! What are- never mind, we've got to get out of here," Alex said in surprise, grabbing Ryan's arm and pulling him down the stairs. He tried his best to ignore the pointed and amused looks from Ally and Aurora, but it was a little humiliating.

As soon as they were all a safe distance from Dionysus's wrath, Alex punched Ryan for the second time today.

"What the Hades was that for?" Ryan asked, taking a step back and rubbing the newest forming bruise on his chest.

Alex shrugged and started to walk off. "Just finding out how much of our conversation you overheard. And making sure I won, don't forget that," she said in a simple voice.

Ryan was going to retaliate, but Aurora sliced her hands across her neck and shook her head. Ally turned around and repeated the same motions, but actually said something, probably so as to not make it suspicious. "Don't forget to remind everyone about the counselor meeting!"

"Okay, thanks!" Ryan called back, though he didn't really have any intentions on telling anyone anything.

His mind was too focused on this prophecy problem.

* * *

**Alice**

Ally was seriously freaked out about that stupid scroll. If she hadn't been nosing around, none of this would have happened.

Okay, granted that the whole trip to the attic was actually a little exciting. Ally had always been curious about what could be up there that Mr. D. and Chiron didn't want the campers' business in.

Rumors had had it that the attic was once the home of the oracle, but Ally couldn't really see why anyone would want to live up there. She was pretty sure there was more to the story, but everything concerning the Titan and Giant Wars was considered forbidden topics that should not be repeated. But Ally wondered how they were supposed to learn from past mistakes if they weren't even allowed to speak about them. It really didn't make much sense.

However, now Ally had more important things to worry about. Like the prophecy for example. The dusty scroll felt like it was burning a hole in her pocket, and she asked herself why she had exactly picked it up in the first place. As usual, her mind responded with a complicated and reasonable answer that Ally didn't want to admit was true.

Ally turned over on her bed. She'd been there ever since she had parted ways with Alex and Rory after spreading the word about the head counselor meeting, mulling over the million things going through her head.

She was glad that her siblings had the sense to find somewhere else to be other than the Athena cabin, because Ally felt like she was ready to snap.

What could that ridiculous prophecy mean?

_The god of death shall see it through_

_That two of the creator of voodoo,_

_And one of storms and one of sea,_

_Plus the daughter and the tender of the olive tree,_

Well, that part at least was pretty obvious. Hades, the god of death was obviously decreeing the following demigods to go through with the quest. Creator of voodoo had to be Hecate, it would only make sense. The next line was easy too, a child of Zeus (storms) and a child of Poseidon (sea).

The daughter and the tender of the olive tree. Ally definitely knew who the daughter of the olive tree would be, after all, it was her own mother who created it. Daughter of Athena, then. And who tended to olive trees, or maybe just trees in general? That would be a Demeter kid, most likely.

_Shall face trial and tribulations abound_

_To find one who won't come back around_

_All for the price of Harvest's need,_

_Double the lives has been decreed._

Now to the scary part of the prophecy. The parts that Ally didn't quite understand yet. Maybe she'd just wait until the meeting to decipher it, that way other fresh minds could help and contribute ideas.

Ally looked at the digital clock next to her bedside table, and found that the head counselor meeting was in just a few minutes. Sighing, Ally fingered the scroll in her pocket and forced herself up from the bed.

The promethean boards scattered around the walls were blinking their red lights in almost an ominous way, the lights reflecting across the windowpanes.

Ally drew the curtains, pushed her black hair back into a ponytail, and walked out the door.

She could see all the other counselors making their own ways to the Big House meeting room, and by the looks of it she'd be one of the last to arrive.

_Way to make an impression, Ally_, she thought to herself as she physically forced herself up those stupid wooden steps. None of this would've happened if she had just reasoned with Alex and found another place to seek safety.

Granted, she wasn't completely innocent. Ally hadn't stopped her because she herself wanted to know what was in the attic. Well, congratulations! Now she knew and had basically sentenced herself to the quest.

The meeting room, or otherwise known as the recreation room due to the ping pong table situated in the middle and the assorted random objects all around, was already full with heads from all cabins. Some more interested than the others, who were causing many different kinds of trouble depending on who they were.

Ally was, in fact, the last person to arrive. Her seat was reserved, however, between the head counselor from the Zeus cabin, Delany, and Alex. She slid in the tightly arranged seat, and Alex snorted.

"Nice of you to arrive on time," she commented as Chiron rose to take the meeting to order. Ally noticed that Dionysus had not bothered to show up. Probably drinking again or something.

Chiron nodded in greeting to everyone, and Ally found herself avoiding his eyes. She almost hated the way he looked at everyone. That look that said she could do better but also one of years of sadness due to death of demigods he had personally known.

"Now, it has come to my attention that a prophecy has been recovered from the attic-"

"The attic?"

"What was somebody doing in the attic?"

"So not fair!"

Chiron held up a hand to indicate silence to the campers, which did so immediately. "It seems as though this prophecy has arisen in quite the time of tragedy. Dionysus has been called back to Olympus for an emergency meeting. Does anyone have an idea why?"

Across the table, Carson raised a hesitant hand after a few moments of no volunteers. "It's Persephone, isn't it? In order for the seasons to change from death and despair to new life, Persephone has to return from the Underworld. She hasn't returned, has she?"

"Very good," Chiron praised, and Ally found herself a little taken aback by the information Carson had known all along. She wasn't the only stunned one, all the other heads wore a similar look of surprise. A few though, some of the less mythologically educated looked confused.

Chiron shifted over to explain, his hooves clacking on the wooden floors. "Centuries ago, Demeter and Zeus had a daughter who we know as Persephone. Demeter prized Persephone and kept her hidden from the gods who showed interest in her, such as Hermes and Apollo. However, Hades had fallen in love with her, so Zeus allowed him to abduct her against Demeter's will."

"That's messed up," Kristen, an Apollo girl commented.

Chiron ignored her and carried on with his story. "Demeter didn't know where her daughter had gone, and she searched the world for her. She forbade the earth from fertility and neglected all her responsibilities as a goddess. The world fell into great famine."

"Hmm. Why does that sound familiar?" the head counselor of the Ares cabin, Jordan said. Ally met eyes with her for a moment in agreement, but she soon looked away.

"Finally, everything was so bad that Zeus was forced to tell Demeter where Persephone had gone. Before she could be retrieved though, Hades tricked Persephone into eating some pomegranate seeds from the Underworld, and by doing this she could never really leave. She was obligated to spend a third of the year in the Underworld, while the rest was spent with the other gods for the rest of eternity," Chiron finished.

Alex leaned her chair back and rested her feet on the ping pong table. "So I'm guessing that prophecy is for getting Persephone back because Demeter is having emotional issues without her daughter?"

"Alexandria, would you please word your words a little nicer?" Chiron lightly asked her. "But yes, in answer to your question."

Ally pulled the scroll out and flattened it on the green surface of the table. She quickly recited it and shared her inferences. "And so according to this, we need a child of Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Demeter, and two children of Hecate. Any volunteers?"

Everyone's eyes turned to the only child of Zeus in the room. Delany moved her hands uncomfortably. "Uh, actually, I'm going to turn 18 in less than a week. And I was thinking about retiring to New Rome, so that puts Ryan in charge as Head Counselor…"

"Great! So Ryan gets to go," Ally said brightly, trying to bite down a laugh, just because she knew which child of Poseidon was now for definite going to volunteer.

As if on cue, Alex raised her hand. "I'm the child of sea, I'll go!"

Ally smoothed out the paper and smirked at her prediction. "Okay, well that leaves the Athena, Demeter, and the two from Hecate."

"Aurora and I will be going for the Hecate cabin," a firm voice from the corner of the room said. Ally nearly jumped because she forgot about Sansa even being there.

"Thank you, Sansa. So who's the Demeter kid? Carson, what do you say?" Ally asked, meeting his green eyes across the table.

Carson pressed his lips together and gave a deep breath. "I suppose I can do it. Isabella would probably want to stay here and help out." he said with distaste. "And you, Ally?"

Ally felt a wave of emotion come crashing into her. She'd almost forgotten about the child of Athena. How could she? She was suddenly aware of how unprepared she was for this. What if something went wrong? Everything would be her fault. Ally was supposed to have a plan!

"Ally?" Alex asked in concern.

Ally swallowed. "Y-yes," she said, stumbling over her words, "I'll go."


	4. Maturity Is Overrated

**Alas, I got this chapter done! I'm not extremely happy with it, but I guess it's more of a filler chapter. I hope the next is more interesting! Anyways...**

* * *

**Sansa**

Sansa sprang up from yet another dream message from her lovely mother.

Seriously, Sansa got it! Go on this quest, screw everything up, overthrow the gods…blah blah blah. And what was Sansa gaining from all this? Pretty much close to nothing. And what was Hecate hoping to gain from this? Oh, not much. Just _ruler_ of the _gods_.

Being a demigod was so not fair.

Just laying there, Sansa realized that she might not ever be able to do this again. She might not return from the quest to be able to lay in bed and stare at her decorative cabin. No more head counselor duties, no campfires, no hanging out with her friends. Hades, she might not ever even have to clean this place again or yell at her siblings to do things.

But Sansa couldn't worry about pathetic things like that. She could make it through this quest alive and come back. She was a very much talented daughter of Hecate, her mother had even told her. If Sansa had made it this far in her life, she could survive a dumb quest to the Underworld.

Sansa sleepily looked at the enchanted clock on the ceiling since no one else was awake in her cabin yet. 5:05 a.m. in the morning, it read according to the ancient symbols. No wonder nobody was up yet.

But she was, and she had a quest to leave for at seven. Sansa quietly got up from her bed and grabbed her bag of things she had packed last night.

As Sansa walked by Aurora's bed, she noticed that she too was up already, hanging upside down from her top bunk and putting her blonde and purple hair in a ponytail.

Sansa put a finger to her lips, and Rory nodded in response. They both knew to keep quiet so as to not arouse the rest of the cabin. Besides, Sansa really didn't want to be there when her siblings would have to figure out who would be head counselor.

With one last look at her cabin mates, Sansa slipped into the bathroom and greeted her horrid morning appearance in the mirror. She pulled out her sloppy night bun, which almost immediately turned to its normal flat appearance with a few tangles that Sansa quickly took care of with her comb.

Sansa became aware of just how nervous she was for this quest. It didn't make sense, though, because she had known about it far longer than anyone else at camp. She should be more prepared and ready to go out there.

She felt like something was going to go wrong on this quest, she just needed a sign. Sansa half expected the mirror to crack in front of her, or a black cat to cross her path.

Stupid superstitions.

However, she was confident in herself that she could get done whatever needed to be done. Sansa would be able to go through with this quest, it was just the others that she was worried about. What if someone backed out on them and betrayed them, completely ruining all the plans?

It's not like Sansa was going on this quest by herself or even with her friends. She and Rory had the relationship of strictly sisters. Alexandria, Alice, and Aurora were all best friends, leaving Sansa to be the outsider of the girls. Sansa was on okay terms with the Demeter kid, Carson, but she knew nothing about the son of Zeus other than he was respected and got in fights with Alexandria a lot.

Sansa was _so_ going to fit in.

In just a few minutes she had dressed herself for the quest, choosing to wear jeans and a black leather jacket. Sansa put her aviators on the top of her head, strapped her backpack on, and checked that her staff was properly attached to her belt.

When she left the bathroom, Aurora was already waiting at the door, dressed and everything.

"Somebody's excited," Sansa softly commented, walking past her and heading out the cabin door.

She heard Rory follow her out the door, her lithe footsteps barely making a sound on the dirt. "Not excited, just too nervous to sleep," Aurora responded once they were out of earshot of the cabin.

The morning sun was just rising against the eastern horizon, giving the land and sky an orange tinge. The Big House front porch was empty, as was the rest of the camp. Probably since no one wanted to risk being eaten by the harpies.

Sansa didn't reply to her sister, instead focusing on what to do until they left for the quest. Waiting by the Big House was probably the best option, but Sansa didn't want to risk possibly getting in trouble for being out.

But, it was all she could think of. So she stepped on the dewy morning grass and made her way towards the empty porch. Aurora followed her silently, most likely too absorbed in her own thoughts to even notice the lack of sound between the two.

Sansa took the opportunity of snatching Dionysus's seat since he had most likely stayed at Olympus for the night, hopefully maybe even for forever. Not like it would matter to Sansa anyways if she died on the quest, but at least it was a somewhat pleasant thought.

Rory took the seat across from her and busied herself with arranging the contents of her bag. "Sansa, what did you bring? I feel like I'm forgetting something and I didn't really know what to bring anyways. I mean, who knows what we'll need."

"Um, well, my staff for one," Sansa answered, surprised. "A few clothes, spell books, an enchanted apple I've been needing to get rid of, a puzzle-"

"Why a puzzle?" Aurora interrupted in curiosity.

Sansa rolled her eyes. "I didn't bring it for enjoyment, though I'd like to. It's cursed, I did it last night. Give a piece to someone, even a god, and they'll feel as if they're missing something even if they're not. Eventually, the feeling will get so aggravating that the owner can't do anything but look for the missing thing for days or maybe weeks, depending on whether you're mortal or immortal," Sansa explained.

"That's kind of a dirty trick," Rory said appreciatively. "How big is the puzzle?"

Sansa leaned back in the chair uncomfortably. "I was only able to curse about three pieces before passing out. It's a difficult spell that requires a lot of energy."

Sansa expected Rory to laugh at her weakness of only being able to curse three pieces before passing out, but Aurora actually smiled. "Wow, Sansa, that's really cool that you found that. I wish I could be as talented as you when it comes to magic," Rory said in a dull voice.

"What are you talking about?" Sansa said with a light laugh. "Everybody thinks you are so talented and good at magic, I hear about it all the time. Even Hecate told me. I'm pretty sure she thinks you have more potential than me. I can't believe you just said that!"

Aurora blushed and zipped her bag back up. "I don't know about that," she simply said.

Before Sansa could reply with a sarcastic remark, she noticed a few more people out and heading towards the Big House porch. The Demeter boy was already hauling himself up the steps.

"Morning," the brown haired boy sleepily greeted, throwing his bag in the seat next to Sansa and sitting right on top of it, making him at least a half a foot above everyone else.

"Good morning, Carson," Rory brightly said in response.

Sansa rolled her eyes. This was going to be _such_ a fun quest! "Are you ready to leave so we can be on schedule?" she asked. Sansa did not want to make any extra trips back just because somebody forgot something.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Carson grumbled, pulling an orange out of his pocket and peeling it without much effort. "Next time, why don't the gods do something good for themselves? Like die," he grumpily added.

Aurora gasped. "Carson, don't say stuff like that here! It's not like it was when-" she abruptly stopped and busied herself with arranging the playing cards on the table.

Sansa raised an eyebrow, but let it slide since obviously she wasn't allowed to know what Rory meant. Carson must have understood though, because he was intently interested in the contents of the orange.

The rest of the six were now entering the Big House porch area, and the little conversation between them ceased as they approached, though Sansa could tell that the Alex girl and Ryan had been arguing.

Ally was carrying a binder of papers, which she laid neatly on the table. "Before anyone asks, this is what I spent my sleepless night doing. Researching anything that could possibly help," the black haired girl stated. "Anyone else sleep deprived?"

While everyone else nodded yes, the son of Zeus waved a lazy hand. "Actually, I slept just fine, thank you. I live for this stuff."

"I slept even _better_ than fine," Alex countered. "We kids of Poseidon would die to go on quests like this!"

"Then why don't _you_ just drop dead?"

"If you guys don't shut up, I'm going to curse you so that you can't talk anymore!" Sansa irritably interrupted, causing the two blondes to direct their attention away from each other.

If they were going to argue with Sansa, they didn't because the screen door opened to reveal Chiron and Argus, the many eyed security guard, coming out to send them off.

The plan was that Argus would drive them in the camp van until they got to the airport, then the six of them were on their own. From there, the plan was to take a plane to DOA Recording Studios in Los Angeles to gain access to the Underworld. Everything after that was purely take it as it came, then figure out what to do.

Chiron had a grim look on his bearded face as he sent them off. "You're ready, I take it? You may go and load yourselves into the van then," Chiron calmly said, and they all started to pick up their bags and move off the porch.

"Except for Miss Hayden and Mr. Princeton, that is."

* * *

**Ryan**

"What do you mean, _we can't go on the quest_?" Ryan objected angrily.

Chiron had taken Ryan and Alex into the small living room, which was sparsely decorated to look like a winery. While everyone else was allowed to load up and leave for the airport, he and Alex got to stay behind to have a 'talk' with Chiron.

Chiron paced in front of the couch that Ryan and Alex were situated in at opposite ends. "Your godly parents have it in their best interest that you two do not attend this quest-"

"What, so they want my brother Indigo and his brother Jack to go?" Alex interrupted with a sneer, crossing her legs on the couch.

Chiron gave her a pressing stare, but Alex held her ground. "If you would let me finish my statement, please. At the meeting last night, Zeus and Poseidon declared that none of their children were allowed to be in attendance of this quest," Chiron finished.

Ryan skeptically narrowed his eyes. "So they're going _against_ the prophecy? Don't bad things happen when you try to go against a prophecy?"

"What inspired them to dawn on this marvelous idea?" Alex added as she pressed her lips together and crossed her arms.

Chiron walked with his hooves towards another door. "Your parents say you show no traits of self control or dignity. Childish and immature, they say," Chiron calmly stated before leaving the room.

The words took a minute to sink in, but Ryan got it first. "It's all your fault, Alex! Seriously, the geysers? If you hadn't of done that, we'd be on that van too!"

"Oh yeah?" Alex challenged. "What about that twister you tried enveloping me in? Or the sucking the electricity from my cabin? Or the rain cloud that followed me around for an entire _week_ just because I went on a date with Kaldon from the Apollo cabin-"

"That wasn't because you went on a date with Kaldon! It was because…it doesn't matter! You're the immature one!" Ryan retorted, standing up from the old brown couch.

Alex followed suit. "Whatever, Ryan. It doesn't make a difference anyhow! We missed our chance. We blew it!"

Outside, the conch horn sounded, signaling time for breakfast. Ryan felt his face fall, the actual meaning of being left behind from this quest sinking in. How were they supposed to get on with their lives like nothing had happened?

The rest of the day went by slowly and miserably. Ryan sat with Jack at the dinner table now, but he felt alone. Ryan couldn't help but feel that Jack was blaming him for the banning.

When Ryan had to give an offering to his dad, he honestly couldn't think of anything nice to say. "Thanks for the support, Dad," Ryan sarcastically said, hoping Zeus was too old to pick up on sarcasm.

Apparently he was, because Ryan wasn't sitting in his new form as a pile of ashes.

Ryan stared blankly at the juicy steak on his plate with absolutely no appetite whatsoever. When Jack said, "Hey, Bro. You gonna eat that?" Ryan just pushed the plate towards Jack wordlessly.

Alex was sitting at her table next to them with Indigo, but she was doing about just as much as Ryan was, if not worse. Ryan had to give it to her, when it came to sulking and moping, Alex was the queen of it.

When Indigo got up and left, leaving Alex at her table all alone with her head laying down in her arms, Ryan snapped. This was not going to happen like this.

He got up from the Zeus table and sat right across from Alex, earning a lot of gasping and staring from the surrounding demigods. Alex looked up. "What do you want?" she exasperatedly asked.

"We're going on that quest, whether our parents like it or not," Ryan stated firmly with his hands on the tabletop.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Okay. Let me know how that goes." Then she returned her head into her arms.

Ryan pulled her arms away from her head. "Look. I know you have pretty good connections around camp. Especially with the Hades cabin…"

That pulled Alex out of her sulkiness. Her ocean blue eyes widened. "Elizabeth!"


	5. Elizabeth's Key

******Thank you for being so awesome with your reviews! Sorry for this filler chapter too, but I needed it! As always, tell me if I did anything wrong!**

* * *

**Alexandria**

"Apparently Ally was thinking ahead when she told us to be nice to the daughter of Hades," Alex said as she and Ryan took off in a dead sprint towards the dark Hades cabin.

Ryan laughed. "Now let's just hope _you_ were nice enough."

"Me, nice enough? I'm the most lovely, wonderful-" Alex cut herself off as they stopped right in front of the skeletal door.

They both hesitated. Alex hadn't quite thought ahead as to what exactly to ask of Elizabeth Sinclair. Obviously, Elizabeth had access to the Underworld whenever she pleased, which was the destination of Alex and Ryan. However, there was no guaranteeing that Elizabeth would even help them.

Alex pat Ryan on the shoulder. "Well, there you go. _You're_ the all powerful leader so _you_ get to knock on the door!" she congratulated, earning a glare from Ryan.

"Smartass," Ryan grumbled, reaching his long fingers towards the door handle that was so nicely carved into a skull and pulling it back, causing a loud knock to shudder across the door.

Alex held her breath in, not entirely fond of the Hades cabin as a whole. She knew Ryan wasn't comfortable with it either, which was expected. Both of them were used to the freedom of the sea and the sky, not to a confined dark place underground.

The door opened, revealing a pale blonde girl with a sunken in, long face dressed in a royal purple dress. She had dark circles around her eyes, whether that be from being an insomniac or makeup Alex didn't know, and she wasn't going to ask either.

Like all children of Hades, Elizabeth was from a past time, Hades being the only one who hadn't broke the oath before it was removed. If he had children now, they were still too young to attend camp. Elizabeth was from South Dakota, but that was all anyone knew about her past.

"Yes?" her hazily voice asked, her eyes narrowed in question at the two other children of the Big Three.

Alex tried for a charming smile. "Can we come in? It's kind of private," she suggested in a light voice.

Ryan threw her a look, but Elizabeth didn't seem to notice as she had already disappeared back into the cabin again. Ryan reached for her hand to pull her in, but then blushed, which made Alex blush, and stumbled in without her.

Alex had half the nerve to punch him for making her blush.

If the outside of the Hades cabin was weird, the inside was definitely no better. Basically because it was almost impossible to see anything aside for the creepy glow around everyone's bodies, which helped Alex to notice that they were alone in the cabin with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth didn't speak, leaving Alex and Ryan to stand there awkwardly with a silent and unspoken battle going on between facial expressions about who was going to speak first.

Alex won, or Ryan gave up rather. "So, we need to ask you a favor…"

"You want into my father's realm," Elizabeth stated. Her eyes had a far away look about them.

Alex popped her knuckles in anxiety. "Um, that's exactly it. Straight to the point. I like you," she said in approval, which seemed to ease the tension a little.

"Can you help us?" Ryan asked, rolling his eyes at Alex.

Alex almost stuck out her tongue, but Elizabeth pulled something out of her pocket. It was a shiny obsidian key. The ends seemed to be changing shape at every second. "This is a key," Elizabeth stated.

_No, really? _Alex thought to herself, but decided not to voice that out loud.

"It isn't part of my father's original set of keys, but it is a duplicate. Unlike his keys, which can literally set up a passageway to the Underworld in any given place, mine can only have one place. I've already chosen the place, so it can't be changed," Elizabeth explained.

Ryan swallowed. "Okay, so where is this place?"

Elizabeth smiled, but it wasn't a happy one. "Assuming you prove yourselves worthy of my help, it is in Rushmore Cave, South Dakota. The place where I was trapped for years, unaging, until my father took me out."

"What do you mean by proving ourselves worthy?" Alex asked, hardly even noticing the personal piece of information Elizabeth had just shared with them.

Elizabeth sighed and pulled the key away from Alex and Ryan's sight, her face resonating a ghostly glow. "I apologize, I worded myself wrong. See, I need something from you, too, it seems."

"Okay, what?" Ryan eagerly asked.

"The Fates, should you come across them," Elizabeth started, "I want you to request of them my string that represents my life. In return, you shall offer them my key to the Underworld. You see, my father has recently restricted the amount of time they spend down there, which angers them. If they had a key that allowed them in there whenever they pleased, my father's restriction would mean nothing."

Alex shifted and crossed her arms. "So you're going against what your father's doing?"

"Are you not doing the same, Alexandria Hayden?"

"Point taken," Alex agreed, holding out her hand for the key.

Elizabeth made no movement towards her, instead placing it in Ryan's hand. "Please be careful with this. I don't want it lost. It's all I have for leverage for my strand," she said in a pleading voice.

Ryan ripped off a piece of his shirt and wrapped it into his jean pocket. "We will. Why do you want your string of life anyways?" he asked, taking a hardly unnoticeable step backwards.

"That is my business," Elizabeth snapped, and Alex felt the air almost turn cold. Of course, that could've been part of Ryan's fault because he didn't like being spoken to like that.

Alex quickly latched onto Ryan's wrist and pulled him out of the cabin as best as she could. "Well thank you for your assistance, Miss Sinclair, but we must be going. After all, we have a quest to start!"

Elizabeth didn't answer with anything but a dark stare and a closing of the Hades cabin door. The two of them got a safe distance away from the cabin and anyone else before they tried for discussion.

"So, we sneak out. But how in the Hades are we going to get all the way to South Dakota? Where even is Rushmore Cave?" Alex asked in irritation, looking over to the Hades cabin in distaste.

Ryan gave her one of his looks. "I'm like your human GPS. It's in Keystone, South Dakota. Do you want the coordinates as well?"

Alex resorted to what she did best after Ryan gave her a smart answer. She hit him. "Oh, whatever. Just as long as we get there. How do you feel about hijacking the camp van? I saw it was back from dropping the others off," she told him.

"Actually, I have an easier and faster way…" Ryan responded, but he had a hesitant look in his eye like he was pretty sure Alex was going to hit him again.

Alex put her hands on her hips. "What is your marvelous idea then?"

"We fly to the airport."

"What? Are you kidding me? Your father will blast me out of the air!" Alex yelled, but immediately shut her mouth after a few campers started to look over to the two of them curiously. Well sorry, but Alex could not believe Ryan had just suggested that.

Ryan grasped her shoulders. "Chill out, Alex. It'll be okay. Besides, I'll catch you if you fall or if Zeus decided to blow up the airplane. But what choice do we have?"

Alex pulled away, feeling the slight pulsing of the electricity that ran through Ryan's veins remain on her shoulders. "We don't have any other choice, I suppose, that'll get us there in time," she agreed as she opened the door to her cabin, which they had slowly drifted towards.

She walked in, grabbed her backpack that she had angrily thrown at the wall, and met Ryan behind the Zeus cabin. He had his bag strapped around his shoulder with a few bungee cords attached. Alex didn't want to think about what those were for.

"Drop me, and I'll make sure your life is hell," Alex warned as Ryan strongly pulled her against him. She was almost reminded of how their position was like a dance.

Ryan chuckled as they began to leave the ground. "Honey, where we're going, I think life's going to be hell anyways."

* * *

**Ally**

They ran out of luck in the middle of a cornfield.

And of course, they didn't have the human navigator son of Zeus to give them any sense of location, so Ally had almost no idea of where they were, just that it was nearing night and they were somewhere in the Midwestern part of America.

The plane ride had been relatively safe, getting on had been a little hard but Rory and Sansa took care of any problems with a little magic. They only ran into one monster once they got on the plane, which Carter strangled with a planted pot he had brought in his bag.

Who knew that celestial bronze thorns could be inbred into a simple plant to make it lethal?

Ally was the only one who felt completely useless at this time. And to top it off, she was the leader of this quest, and she'd done absolutely nothing at all to contribute to it.

Even now she was doing nothing as the other three set up camp for the night. Sansa and Rory were trying to create protective spells around their camp since there was absolutely no cover other than cornstalks. Carson was manipulating the corn stalks to intertwine and create a shelter of some sort.

And what was Ally doing? Blankly searching through her giant book of research on what to expect in the Underworld while the cornstalks twisted around her.

Overall, Ally was very upset with herself.

Rory and Sansa warily dragged themselves under the shelter, each pulled a thin blanket from their bags, and collapsed from magic exhaustion. Ally sincerely hoped their efforts would be enough to at least hide their scent and keep outsiders away. In a way, Ally was glad that the prophecy had called for two children of Hecate. Only one might not have had enough energy to cast a strong spell, but with two, their powers were doubled.

As Ally watched Carson work on making some sort of food source out of the dried up corn, she wondered what his purpose on this quest was. Why did it have to be this son of Demeter of all the demigods in Camp Half-Blood?

Ally just felt so awkward around Carson ever since Alex and Rory had pointed out that he was obviously head over heels for her. Ally just never really noticed, she supposed. Then again, Carson was more of the quiet type who stayed in the back and waited for the right time to say or do something.

It made Ally feel like a horrible person that she couldn't return what he felt for her. And then there was Erick…

"_Hey, Ally. Can we talk?"_

_Ally turned around, nearly dropping the encyclopedias she had in her arms. It was Erick, son of Apollo, total bad boy of the camp. From his dark hair to his dark attitude, he had the word _trouble_ written all over him, in Ally's opinion. _

_Ally pushed a piece of her annoying black hair behind her ear. "Um, sure. What do you need?"_

_He motioned towards the weapons shed and took off walking towards it in a solemn mood. Ally followed him, somewhat hesitant, but curious as to what in the world Erick could want. _

_They stepped inside, and Erick closed the door. Ally trained her eyes on the variety of lethal weapons all around, ranging from ancient to modern day made with celestial bronze and imperial gold. _

"_You don't have to go on that quest," Erick started. _

_Ally felt her face turn hard at the mention of the quest. "Yes, I do. It's my quest. I found the scroll."_

_Erick studied her, and for once, Ally found herself unable to read his emotions. "Just because you found the scroll doesn't automatically make it your quest. I don't see why it would be _anyone's_ quest! This is the gods' problems. Let them figure it out."_

"_It doesn't work that way. We're born for a reason, the gods can't solve everything themselves. I have to go. Why does it matter to you anyway?" Ally asked, feeling this conversation take a bad turn. _

_Erick forcefully hit the door, but turned back to her, grabbing her face with his rough hands. "Alice, come with me. We can run away from all this. You have siblings to take your place on this quest. _Please_. You might not come back from this quest," he begged. _

_Ally pulled herself away from Erick, surprised by the sudden change in character from Erick. "Why is my life so important to you?"_

_Erick came closer to her again, but this time he lightly kissed her on the lips. "Stay, and I'll tell you."_

"_I-I can't," Ally stumbled out, pushing past Erick and running out of the old shed, leaving Erick behind. _

Ally wasn't sure if that was sign from Aphrodite that she was fifteen and needed to get a boyfriend already or not. Add Carson who was apparently head over heels for her, and it would look like it was a sign.

But Ally was sure Erick wasn't under any influence at all. There were a few things that seemed a little fishy, however. How did Erick expect to take her to a safe place that was any better than a quest? He must not have been telling her everything.

"Hey, do you want some, uh…corn-type-stuff?" Carson asked, holding out a plate of deformed yellow kernels that didn't even look healthy.

"Are those even safe to eat?" Ally asked, picking one up and eying it carefully.

Carson popped one in his mouth. "I'm not dead yet."

Ally sighed and cautiously ate one, discovering that they tasted sugary but dry. "You're also a son of Demeter, which probably makes you immune to produce food poisoning," she pointed out.

Carson crossed his legs on the ground, placing a few more small cobs above the fire. "You're a daughter of Athena. Does that make you immune to stupid moments?"

"Well played, Mr. Williams," Ally said, admitting defeat after she could think of no response.

They stayed silent for a few moments in awkwardness, so Ally decided to take the opportunity to sharpen the throwing knives she'd taken from the supply. Eventually, Carson collapsed from lack of sleep right on top of a plate of corn, and Ally decided to maybe try for a little sleep too. She didn't know if she'd be getting any nights of sleep for the rest of the entire quest, so it could be vital to her survival.

However, she found herself to be in the perfect position to look at the dazzling country sky full of stars, something she wasn't used to due to her Boston home. Ally had studied star charts before, completely mystified by the pure vastness of knowledge that they had yet to discover.

Though that had been back before she knew about her mother's godliness, when Ally believed in what mortal scientists said. But even now Ally couldn't understand how even the gods could control all that unknown in the universe.

Maybe the mortals were on to something.

Ally quickly realized that the star charts made it sound easy to identify constellations. The ancient Greeks really had imaginations when they made them up.

After much trial and error, Ally identified Cassiopeia, the queen who almost caused her daughter Andromeda to get eaten by Poseidon's monster, Cetus, after claiming Andromeda was more beautiful than Poseidon's. That was of course, before Perseus saved Andromeda.

She also found Draco the dragon, both of the dippers, and was almost certain she had found Leo the lion before a dark shadow covered her view that was definitely _not _Carson.

"Enjoying the view, daughter of Athena?"


	6. Hating the Goddess of Love

**I hope this wasn't as much as a filler chapter as the last ones have been. Thank you for your patience as I laid my loyalties to my family! As always, tell me if I'm doing something wrong!**

* * *

**Ally**

"Sorry? Who are you?" Ally asked, trying to keep her voice calm. Her mind calculated all the possibilities. A woman's voice, but that was all Ally knew about the entity in front of her.

Her eyes shifted to the sleeping figure of Carson, who hadn't even moved at the disruption of the silence. Ally figured the two daughters of Hecate hadn't either. They must've been really exhausted from the use of their powers. That, or they were all heavy sleepers.

"Oh, that is my fault, my dear! Shall we go someplace more comfortable?"

Before Ally could object that no, she was perfectly happy here surrounded by people who could fight if needed, when in a pink mass of fog she was suddenly transported to some godsforsaken land.

Upon landing, Ally almost collapsed from the impact. Her head felt like the pink fog had permanently altered her perception of things, and she couldn't see straight. Was she on a...porch? The white wood beneath her feet didn't feel real.

"Here now, sit here. It gives you such a nice view of the scenery!" the woman said, helping Ally on to what seemed to be a porch swing.

Ally clutched onto the armrests on the side, though sitting down did help her mind defog tremendously. The view was not Ally's first item of interest right now, as the lady was so concentrated on. She wanted to know where she was and who this entity was.

"Who are you?" Ally asked as her eyes started to clear up and see things as normal. The fog felt like it was almost gone by now, which Ally greatly appreciated.

She could now see that she was definitely on a porch connected to a seemingly enormous house. The house was surrounded by a few grand cottonwood trees with the stretch of fields beyond fields that reached until the sunset. The grass on the yard was neatly trimmed to perfection and a white picket fence encircled the property.

The woman laughed and sat down beside her on the porch swing. "My dear, do you even have to ask? I thought a daughter of Athena would be more observant."

Ally felt insult rise high in her chest. She hated it when people always automatically assumed that she knew what to do and knew everything just because she was a daughter of Athena. Though she hated to admit it, Carson had been right. Ally did have stupid moments sometimes.

Ally turned to the woman beside her, and was almost blown away by her breathtaking beauty.

Cascades of lightly curled dark red hair tumbled around her face and back with eyes just the right shade of light brown. No freckles covered her face, and her features gave off the feeling of elegance though she was wearing just a simple white sundress.

Ally had once read a book called _Anne of Green Gables_, and this woman gave off the impression that she was a older, perfect version of Anne. It made Ally jealous. She'd always wanted dark red hair, her own brown eyes to be that brown sugar color.

And that was how Ally deduced who this woman was. "Aphrodite?"

The woman smiled a perfect smile. "About time, dear!" she exclaimed, brushing a few fingers through her hair though the gesture was unneeded in Ally's opinion.

"Um, no offense, but why am I here and why did you bring me here?" Ally asked, desperate to get away from the goddess of love and beauty as soon as possible.

Aphrodite crossed her legs and straightened her dress. "Why, we're here to talk about you, of course! This is my home when I'm feeling the need to be a western girl married off to a rich farmer. It doesn't happen very often but it _is_ your view of beautiful!"

Ally shook her head in disbelief, not really getting where Aphrodite was going with this. "Look. Yes, I've always admired the way you look right now. I do in fact really like this house. But all this," Ally said, pointing to the endless rows of crops, "I've never even thought of. It's never been in my wildest dreams! I don't know where you're getting all this!"

"Hmm. I was sure..." Aphrodite said in confusion, closing her eyes. "Oh, that makes sense. Standing too close when I transported us!" she said with finality.

Ally raised her eyebrows, still aching to get away though the porch swing was becoming very comfortable. And the sunset just looked so perfect right now through the trees...

_Stop it_, she told herself. _Aphrodite is influencing your mind._

"Um, I'm afraid I don't understand," Ally told Aphrodite to take her mind off admiring the view.

Aphrodite laughed. "Oh, silly me and my mistakes. I accidentally caught the drift of Carson Williams' dream and it transported us here instead of what you wanted. But I'm here so it's all okay!" she said as if that should be actually true.

Ally didn't feel so sure. "So this is what Carson wants in a home? His beauty? Can't we like flash out or something?" Ally felt like she was invading his privacy by being here. She wouldn't want anyone to see what she saw.

"Oh, it's perfectly fine. He won't know that you were here! Would you like to see the back garden? It's absolutely gorgeous! Carson can really grow the most wonderful roses. And you should see the gazebo! And-"

"Can we just get to the point of why you decided to meet me?" Ally interrupted before Aphrodite could go on anymore and avoid the main topic.

Aphrodite's excited face fell, but she still managed to make it look attractive. "Yes, right. We'll do that another time," she said, but Ally sincerely hoped there _wasn't_ another time, "We're actually here to talk about your love life!"

"Lovely," Ally said in a dull voice. She wondered if she should've taken the offer to look at Carson's garden after all. Ally didn't want to talk about her love life. There was nothing to talk about! She just wasn't interested right now.

But of course, Aphrodite was. "I know, isn't it! Especially when it concerns children of Athena. I don't know why, but your love lives are just so fun to make interesting! I think it's because your mother is the only maiden goddess with children, but I'll ponder that later. So tell me all about Erick's confrontation, dear Ally?"

Ally squeezed her eyes shut. "I don' t know what you're talking about," she tried playing dumb. She did know exactly what Aphrodite wanted to hear, but that didn't mean that Ally wanted to share.

"Oh, but you do! Wasn't it so romantic how he tried convincing you to run away with him to that rebel camp? But you didn't because of your quest and your own responsibilities..and oh, it's just so hopelessly romantic!" Aphrodite wailed, placing her dainty hands on her flawless face.

Ally rolled her eyes, but then stopped as she reconsidered what Aphrodite had just said. "Wait- rebel camp? There's a rebel camp?"

Aphrodite wasn't listening, however. "And then you have Carson who has absolutely no chance with you and he knows it! I mean, you are just so out of his league! But it's cute how dedicated he is to you, I'll admit. At least it adds to the drama. I can't wait until Erick finds out!"

"Aphrodite, can you please tell me more about this rebel camp?" Ally pressed, not really caring about what Aphrodite was rambling on about. Well, she did care that Aphrodite was being so mean to Carson and planning on creating drama, but now was not the time.

The goddess flipped her red hair over her shoulder. "And they told me that you were a smart daughter of Athena! I think it's pretty obvious. Rebel. Camp. See? It's self explanatory! But back to you, my darling," Aphrodite dismissed. "Maybe I should bring some Romans into this...No, they tend to be too uncooperative with my meddling."

Ally let out a frustrated sigh. She couldn't believe that Aphrodite was just freely talking about her life like it was some kind of a board game that she could easily change. "My lady, why don't you just let things like this happen naturally? Isn't that what love is all about?"

"Love does happen naturally, dearie," Aphrodite contradicted. "I just throw in obstacles that make it more interesting! Plus, no love is perfect," she stated, but then squinted at the sunset which was almost completely gone. "Oh my, how time has gone!"

Ally felt relieved but upset at the lack of information she'd gotten from Aphrodite. "Why can't you tell me more?" she asked, but the scene around her was already beginning to grow foggy.

Aphrodite was the only clear thing left. "Because it will add to the entertainment. You will have many more decisions to make in the future that will impact who you love. I hope you make the right decision. Tell Carson I said hi! Oh, and tell Aurora that Noah...Never mind that, actually. Goodbye now!"

And all at once everything disappeared, and Ally gasped as she woke up.

The stars were gone and so was the night. The sun, which was just beginning to rise, was already beating down on everything, making it at least in the low nineties just in the early morning.

Ally pushed herself up from the itchy cornstalks that had been woven into a bed. Around her, her quest mates had already packed up and were sitting in a circle by the concealed fire pit. The two daughters of Hecate had their hair up in ponytails and all three of them were dressed.

Sansa looked over at the rustle of sound coming from Ally. "Look, Alice is up guys," she pointed out. "You wouldn't wake up so we figured you were getting a visit from one of the gods."

Ally gave a weak smile and put her hair up in a ponytail like Sansa and Rory had done. She didn't know how Sansa had figured that out, but she decided not to question it. Instead, she tucked her knife in her pocket and stood up.

"Aphrodite sends her greetings to you, Carson," she stated, starting to walk down one of the rows of corn.

"Ooh, somebody got a visit from the _love_ goddess," Rory said with a smirk, twirling her wand in one hand. "Get ready, girls and boy, 'cause it's gonna be a hot one today!"

* * *

**Ryan**

Seeing Alex ride in a plane was a hilarious, once in a lifetime episode.

The whole time she had clutched the armrests, cursing Ryan and generally all the gods (Which Ryan was sure did not help) and snapping at anyone who dared to speak to her.

Not to mention that as soon as they had gotten off the plane, Alex had collapsed on the cement and screamed, "Land! Sweet land! I'll never leave you again!"

The bruise on Ryan's right shoulder from pulling her away from the mortal people's stares and informing her that swimming in the ocean was technically counted as leaving land was totally worth it. He was pretty sure that the Rapid City Regional Airport would probably consider banning them again if they came back.

Especially if they discovered that they tended to attract monsters, which had been unusually quiet as of lately. Ryan felt both relieved and slightly wary of that fact. Two children of the Big Three traveling together should be being swarmed by monsters by now.

Ryan had taken the lead while Alex was busy recovering from flight and rented out a truck (Okay, so maybe not rented, more like borrowed without asking. But rented sounded so much more proper) with blue Wyoming license plates. He had to admit, for taking a random vehicle, he'd chosen a good one that might stand through a monster or two if they had to run it over.

As soon as they got seated in, Alex hit the air conditioner on high and lathered in front of it from the passenger seat. "I hope you know where you're going, because I did not just ride on that plane for nothing!" she warned, leaning the seat back and closing her eyes.

Ryan started the engine and began to navigate around the masses of other vehicles exiting and entering the parking lot. "Don't worry, I've got the entire map written out in my head. I know exactly what roads to take," he reassured.

It _was _true. Ryan loved his ability to understand coordinates and maps more than any other power he had inherited from Zeus. Flying was cool and all, but knowing where he was at all times and where to go would be a whole lot more helpful. He could fly around for hours and still be lost without that ability. The only time it was a little sketchy was when he was above the ocean, which really wasn't a problem if he had Alex around.

Ryan decided to concentrate on his driving. He wasn't going to lie, he was not an expert driver. He'd been taught how to drive and he'd even gotten his license, but that didn't mean Ryan was necessarily good at it. He hardly ever practiced since he could just travel by air.

He was half tempted to ask Alex if she wanted to drive, but then immediately vetoed the idea. For one, she was sleeping, and for two, Ryan seriously didn't want to imagine that scenario. He could only think of trying to give her directions while she was driving. Ryan wasn't sure that he would enjoy that too much.

The expanse of trees and hills was starting to get very old and Ryan began to miss Rapid City, where there was the comfort of tall building and busy traffic, and tons of other people.

Sure, there was lots of traffic out here on the scenic highways, but all this open space was making Ryan nervous. He felt like he was being watched from behind the trees.

Once, Ryan was sure that he saw a figure that was definitely not a bison, but couldn't seem to spot it again. He didn't know if he'd actually spotted a monster or if his imagination was running away from him.

He started to daze off into the trees and expanse of twisting highway again until Alex slapped him in the arm.

"You idiot! You just passed the sign! Were you not paying attention?" she yelled, pointing the area behind them.

Ryan hit the brakes, making the car behind him honk and angrily pass him. "Are you sure it was the turnoff or just an advertisement?" he asked, not wanting to back up and turn around unless he had to.

Alex irritably hit the dashboard of the truck. "Yes I'm sure! Now turn around, gods damnit!"

"Okay, okay! Turning around! But I hope you know what you're talking about," Ryan muttered as he checked for traffic and made a sharp turn around in the middle of the highway.

Alex huffed. "I always know what I'm talking about. And anyways, if it's not the right turnoff, we can just ask them for directions," she told him, putting her backpack on her lap.

"We are not asking for directions," Ryan grumbled, "when I'm a human GPS!"

Alex crossed her arms. "Boys and their pride issues! Have you ever once thought that maybe you might not always have complete control over your powers?"

Ryan gave her a side glare. "No, actually, I haven't. I'm pretty confident of myself in that way. I can get the job done when needed. Is this the turn?"

"Yes. And I mean both ways. Like your powers are too much for you to handle too. Haven't you ever felt like that? Sometimes...it scares me how much damage I can do," Alex confessed, staring out the window as Ryan turned up the hill.

He felt awkward at Alex's confession. His pride told him not to admit to the things he'd done with his powers, that he was in complete control, but his human side told him to. With a split second decision, Ryan agreed. "It scares me too. When I arrived at camp...that's when I discovered-" he cut himself off.

Ryan didn't want to think about what his electrical powers had done. He felt damaged and guilty every time he thought about that incident. The Apollo boy- he'd just been trying to help. And Ryan had repaid him with...

Maybe that was the reason Ryan was so careful around Erick. He was another son of Apollo who was his friend, no matter how much silent rivalry they felt for each other. Ryan didn't want to get in fight with him because he was afraid he'd get out of control, but this time it wouldn't be an accident while trying to kill a monster.

"Ry, we should go on that zip-line and see how pathetic it is after your flying power," Alex said with amusement, pointing at some strung up cables that tourists were sliding down on a bench. "I mean, if we can come back after this quest is over, if that's all right with you."

Ryan almost hit the brakes again. Was Alex suggesting that they come back together after the quest was over? Did she mean just them two or other people too? Of course it was okay with him! But he didn't want to admit that, that would be mortifying.

"Gotta survive the quest first, then we'll see about traveling to make fun of ridiculous things tourists do," he said in a business voice, proud of how smoothly he pulled that off.

He pulled over on the side, seeing that the parking lot was already full. Ryan hoped that Alex wouldn't decide to point out that she was in fact right about the location of the cave, but she did, of course.

"Told you I knew what I was talking about," she smugly said, walking in a faster pace up the hill.

Ryan ran after her, finally catching up as they stepped onto the first of many sets of wooden stairs that led to the visitor center at the top.

But then, someone screamed. Ryan automatically looked back just as something came ramming into the right side of the stairwell. The wood shuddered and Alex lost her footing, falling back onto Ryan.

Ryan caught just enough of a glance of it to know that it was what he had been seeing in the trees this whole time. It wasn't a bison, it was a demonic bull of some sort, with fiery red eyes and thick, long horns that stuck out several feet on each side.

Alex screamed. "Ryan, it's the Cretan Bull!"

"I don't care about its name, how do we kill it?" he yelled back as they scrambled off the stairs and into the trees. They both knew that there was no sense into bringing it into a group of tourists, and neither of them could afford to depend on their translations of what was happening through the mist.

Alex's face turned white. "I don't know, ask Theseus!"

Ryan stopped across from Alex, just realizing that they'd lost the bull. "Well, I guess we're going to the Underworld whether we win or not," Ryan said dryly, his senses working overdrive as he looked for the bull. "I guess we'll ask him if we don't!"

And then, Ryan saw the bull.

And its red eyes were trained right on the daughter of Poseidon.


	7. The Problem With Siblings

**Apologies for being late, but here is a nice over 4k word chapter! Enjoy!**

**Oh, and another thing: Every last character belongs to you (You know who belongs to you) and the world of PJO belongs to Rick Riordan (Duh)**

* * *

**Alexandria**

It's commonly known that before a near death experience, a person's entire life is said to flash before their eyes.

Yeah, Alex wasn't getting that. And she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

See, this was just the problem with being children of the Big Three. All of them had siblings that had, at one point, conquered all these dangerous monsters. This, of course, led the monsters to hold personal grudges against _all_ children of that particular god, which was totally unfair.

And it was just her luck that Theseus, one of the greatest sons of Poseidon, had to defeat the Cretan Bull. Not to mention Ryan was probably on that hit list because of Hercules removed him from power. But at least Hercules didn't _kill_ the bull!

"Alexandria! Don't just stand there!" Ryan yelled in a panicked voice, running towards the back of the bull with a sword in hand. He almost tripped over a stray branch.

Alex snapped out of her thoughts about why she wasn't seeing her past life and pulled the pearl bracelet off her wrist in a haste. Almost immediately, the bracelet transformed into a deadly celestial bronze sword given to her courtesy of her father for her 16th birthday.

She locked eyes with the demonic Cretan bull that was dead set on killing her. "Catch me if you can," she taunted before doing the most impulsively stupid thing yet: running.

As she took off, she actually realized how many flaws her not thought out plan had. First, she had no idea where in the Hades to go exactly to seek safety. Second, now Ryan was in danger.

Alex looked back for just a swift moment to find just what she had expected. Of course Ryan couldn't back down from the opportunity of a fight. She should have foreseen that just from her many years experience of rising him to that point!

She stopped in her tracks, choices flitting back and forth between in her mind. Alex had to go back for him. He would do the same for her, wouldn't he? But she could see a simple path around them that would make it free for her to enter the Underworld without him. But she needed the key...Had Elizabeth known that Alex would think about taking the Underworld on by herself? Is that why she had chosen to give the key to Ryan?

Ryan's electrically charged sword made contact with the bull's horns with a shower of sparks in another failing attempt to puncture it. Alex's grip on her sword tightened. No one was allowed to mess with Ryan except for her.

And that's when she took off running, straight into the middle of the fight, just as Ryan decided to abandon traditional fighting and go straight for the biggest ace: a lightning bolt.

Alex felt herself being blasted backwards as her heart beat felt out of place and the world started to shakily spin around her. Her back smacked into a tree with full force, knocking any breath that was left in her chest cavity out. Alex could feel the blood trickling out of her new scrapes as she coughed through the smoke and tried to make sense of everything.

Her first step failed her, and Alex stumbled to the ground, scraping her hands and knees. Apparently, Apollo wasn't feeling very sympathetic towards her today since she had accumulated quite the injuries already. Alex coughed again crawled towards the bag that had once been strapped around one shoulder. She pulled out a few rolls of athletic tape and tried her best in her dizzied state to wrap it around the wounds. It wasn't the best solution, but it was all she could find in the present. Why hadn't she put the nectar and ambrosia on the top?

She zipped up her bag and tried to find her comrade. "Ry-" she stopped again to cough. The smoke, instead of easing away, seemed to be getting thicker. "Ryan?" she managed to croak out, but it didn't seem very loud.

Alex managed to walk a few more steps toward the place where Ryan and the bull had been fighting, but nothing became any clearer. Her coughing became more frequent and the smoked was blurring her vision even more.

And that's when she heard the mortal sirens and everything connected.

Ryan had accidentally started a forest fire. And he could possibly be trapped.

Alex tried her best not to panic. She tried to think before doing anything radical, something Ally would be very proud of her for. The best way to get rid of a fire is to deprive it of oxygen by using a smothering technique or...water!

"Ryan!" Alex screamed waving her hands to attempt to clear the smoke. "If you can hear me, make it rain! I'll be back, I promise!" she yelled, making a beeline for the tourist building and entrance ahead.

It was already a hectic mess up there, people being escorted from the building at a hurried pace to avoid any danger from the fire. Firetrucks, ambulances, and police cars were entering the vicinity with urgency.

Alex forced her aching legs to push through the line of people going down, ignoring the pain and the yelling comments directed towards her. She almost tripped as one of the wooden pine steps changed quickly from a small platform and back to a set of stairs again, causing an old lady call her some rather unflattering names.

She reached out with her senses to feel the water source underneath. It was rushing through the pipes with such a wild and desperate source that Alex almost smiled. But then she realized that it was doing this because the fire hoses were draining it out. Well, that wouldn't do.

Alex took the chance to look back and check on the fire and her heart leaped with joy when she saw the slowly forming thunderclouds above the trees. She seriously doubted that the clouds were coincidentally doing that. Either Ryan had heard her and gathered enough strength to do it or he had not heard her and thought of it himself.

She ran as fast as she could to the nearest and largest plumbing part she could feel, which Alex figured led to the bathrooms. Problem was, the closest access to that was in the building, which the park rangers and emergency evacuation directors were closely guarding so that no one went back in.

Alex stopped around the corner from them, trying to come up with some sort of plan that wouldn't make the situation any worse than it presently was. But Ryan was depending on her and he could be dying at the moment. Alex had no time for formulating a plan.

And with that she took the hilt of her sword and smashed it through the window.

If alarms were blaring from the breakage, Alex couldn't hear over the cries of the people and the alarms of the emergency vehicles. She forced her aching body through adding to the already large amount of cuts and scrapes.

Tunnel vision overcame her as she stumbled inside, her eyes desperately looking for the bathroom sign. The glorious florescent sign was pointing to a hall to the left, and Alex sprinted her hardest towards one of the doors, not really paying attention to which one was which.

Her hands flung to the closest pipe, trying to direct the flow out and making it do what she wanted. But nothing came. She didn't even feel the slight nausea that usually came when she used her powers in a real panic. There was nothing.

"Oh, come on, godsdammit! Why isn't anything happening?" she yelled, hitting the pipe. Ryan could be out there dying and she couldn't even muster a bit of her powers to save him.

She turned on a faucet in frustration, splashing her face with the water to maybe increase her energy and clear her head. Alex looked in the mirror with water dripping unattractively down her face. Her blonde hair, once in a neat fishtail braid, was matted all over in a complete mess. She had smudges and spots of blood smearing her face and the only thing that seemed to be in good condition was her ocean blue eyes, and even they were red from the strain of the smoke.

Alex tried to direct the water coming out of the faucet with the same results as last time. She felt like crying, but the salt would burn the scrapes on her face, she feared.

"Salt," Alex muttered, finally noticing why her powers weren't working. "Oh my gods, Alex, you're so stupid!"

Alex had always been accustomed to being in a place near the sea where the water was saltwater. Here, in the middle of a continent, the water was fresh. Alex had not an ounce of control over freshwater. And Alex couldn't even try to think of what godly entity did.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" Alex screamed out in anger, maybe subconsciously hoping that her high emotions would make something happen. Why couldn't Ally have gotten left behind instead of Alex? Ally would know exactly what to do and keep a clear head and she would fix everything in a flawless way.

Seriously, what did Alex and Ryan's godly parents expect? That they would just shrug their shoulders, say "Oh, it was just some pointless quest," and go on with their lives like nothing ever happened? It was obvious _how_ much attention they paid to the potential results of their suddenly parental rules.

Alex was hit by the occasional bit of inspiration. Maybe if she asked Poseidon nicely to contact whoever he needed to contact (Sorry, godly entity that Alex had zoned out when learning said name in mythology class back at camp) to help save Ryan by granting Alex temporary control over freshwater. Besides, she didn't think Zeus would be all that happy if Poseidon told her no and let his son die.

"Okay, daddy-o Poseidon. I know we haven't been on the, well, 'best of terms' we'll call it, but I really need you help. Actually, Ryan's the one who needs your help, but you can help him by helping me! I'll pay you back, promise. I'll, uh, do something for you later when you lose something. Not saying you'll lose something. . . Okay, never mind that. But all you need to do (Not saying you have to) is talk to the overlord or overlady or freshwater and figure this whole thing out!" Alex tried, closing her eyes and even flashing a convincing smile. "_Please_, daddy?"

She almost expected some deep and manly voice to proclaim loudly, "NO!" but instead, an almost rumbling feeling went through her body making her fingers feel like they were tingling from numbness. Her stomach turned upside down and Alex felt like throwing up almost instantly. Alex's head fizzled like she had lost connection with something, but after a moment everything cleared up.

The freshwater coming out of the faucets seemed to call to Alex, every molecule yearning to be touched by her fingers. Alex obeyed, eager and anxious to find out the results.

Her fingertip touched the surface of the water rising to the top of the sink she had left on during her pleas. The water rose to her touch, the droplets making their way up her arms in a slinking motion. They crawled across her fingers, running down the loose strands of her blonde hair, healing the cuts as they pass through them.

Alex was in awe by the sheer beauty of it. She watched the water droplets as they traveled around the room in a daze. She felt like she'd stepped into Wonderland where nothing was as it seemed.

An ivory piece of paper drifting up from the drain and to the top of the water broke Alex's amazement. She gingerly lifted it from the clear water and turned it over. There, written in wave-like writing in a dark ink this was written:

_What is lost is lost_

_What is given is forever._

Alex shakily dropped the ivory paper to the tile floor, not understanding the meaning of the words. Actually, Alex wasn't sure she _wanted _to know what everything meant. Nonetheless, she's ask Alice's advice once they reunited with the other four. Assuming they got there, of course.

Realizing that she had to get a move on, Alex closed her eyes and gathered all the water like she would to the ocean. She felt the power surging behind the clear innocent droplets that had been crawling on her earlier and she directed it out of the bathroom with a powerful push of her arms.

The pipes broke from their bondage and the water rushed out in a waterfall, moving quickly towards the door. Alex felt the rush of nausea and knew that things would only get better from here. She burst through the bathroom door and began to run with the water, the waves splashing around her feet happily.

As she and the water encountered the front entrance closely guarded by forest rangers to make sure no one went back into the cave, Alex lifted her arms into the air and commanded the water to slam right into the doors, knocking over the rangers and falling down the steps in a graceful motion.

"Sorry!" Alexandria apologized, running out with the water and down the wooden steps alongside him. She was sad to see that the thundercloud up above the billowing fire had barely developed anymore than the last time Alex had checked on it, meaning Ryan was losing to his own powers at a fast rate. The firetrucks seemingly had no effect on the lightning fire, the firemen rushing around and spraying all they could.

Alex jumped off the wooden steps with the water following her every move. She concentrated more and move power into every molecule as she sprinted directly into the source of the fire. Her lungs started to cloud up again from the smoke and she knew that she had to let the water loose before she lost any more energy.

The water hit the fire with full force, making an awful sizzling sound not unlike one of grease on a hot pan. Alex covered her face out of instinct though she knew that she wouldn't get hurt. The smoke began to get extremely thick, so bad that Alex could barely see her own hand, but she took this as a good sign this time. The water was working with perfection.

Alex reached her hand out into the fog, trying to find any spare water molecules that weren't doing anything special at the moment. They softly landed in her palm and Alex sighed in relief. "Help me find Ryan, please," she nicely asked, not knowing whether it would actually work or not.

The steam coming from the losing fire separated to make a path through the woods. Alex's breath caught in her throat and she thought, but just for a fleeting second, that maybe freshwater was more powerful than the ocean. It was more resourceful, anyway. Especially in the middle of the continental U.S..

And there he was. Ryan was laying flat with his left side against a tree, his arm outstretched in a possible plea to the sky to help him. It was sickening to Alex. His blonde hair was charred at the ends and wiped over to one side. Ryan's face and body was covered in burn marks as was his bag that he had somehow managed to save. He looked so helpless but noble at the same time.

If only Alex hadn't left him to fight it on his own. If only she'd stayed back to prevent him from trying to save her from that stupid bull none of this would've happened.

"Oh, god, Ryan!" Alex nearly screamed, dropping to the ground next to him and putting a hand on his chest. She felt the steady heartbeat coming from his chest and she nearly cried. She wrapped her arms around his body and rocked him like a baby (Well, as much as she could since he was like a six-foot four guy and Alex was only five six) just out of relief.

She didn't know what shook her out of it, but Alex realized that she needed to get him out of here so that she could get him back to consciousness and they could get into the Underworld already. They had a debt to pay to Elizabeth Sinclair and they needed to fix the world crisis before it got any worse.

With a grunt, Alex attempted to pull him up from the ground. Key word being attempted because the kid seriously needed to lose some muscle mass. Not like that was a bad thing or anything. No, Ryan's muscles were actually kind of hot-

Bad Alexandria! She chided herself. Alex did not have time to go falling for fren-emies. Especially when they were self confident, alpha, hot, idiotic sons of Zeus.

Simply put, Ryan was just too heavy for a girl like Alex to carry. Yes, that was better.

Normally, this would be the time when Alex started to do something rash and stop thinking about her actions, but for some reason, her mind felt clear. She didn't feel the immediate need to do something that might or might not work. Instead, it was like the water was speaking to her and helping her thoughts flow smoothly.

And for some reason, Alex listened to the call of the freshwater. She let go of Ryan's torso and laid it on the ground. Her arm reached out in a summoning way towards what was left of the water and pulled it towards her.

She expected a light wave at best. Mostly, with ocean water, unless Alex was feeling really emotional (and quite frankly, Alex was emotioned-out for the day) she was unable to attract any powerful water tricks. But this- this was different. This was unnatural, the way the water obeyed her.

A stream began to impossibly form, lifting Ryan's body up and causing it to float on a thin strip of water. It wasn't real, it was like nothing Alex had seen before. All she could do was walk alongside Ryan's body and watch in awe as the water carried him uphill and to the main building.

Once they were close by the window Alex had earlier broken out, Alex picked a handful of the wonderful liquid up and splashed Ryan's face in hopes up waking him up.

He shuddered and automatically reached for his nonexistent sword to take on his attacker. Alex laughed in joy and held his arms down, looking below at him. "Not so fast, Air Head," she taunted, but then wrapped her arms around his neck as he pushed himself up.

He stiffened at first, but then relaxed and put his strong hands on her lower back as they still sat on the ground. Alex quite liked the feeling, as a matter of fact. "Gods, what _happened_ to you, Alexandria?"

"Nothing," Alex quickly answered, trying to cover the blush on her cheeks with her singed blonde hair as she pulled back from Ryan. "I just . . .almost lost you. And if you ever do that again, Princeton, I will-"

"Wait, so you're saying you were affected by my near death?" Ryan interrupted, that usual cocky smile back on his lips like nothing had ever happened.

Alex ignored him and dug into his smoke smelling backpack, finding the ambrosia at the top next to a canteen of nectar. "Of course I was. You're my best friend. Now eat this and shut up," Alex bossed, shoving the ambrosia at his face and turning away.

Obviously, the annoying son of Zeus was not going to drop the subject, probably taking pride in trying to humiliate Alex. "So, if we're _best_ friends," he said, emphasizing 'best', "Then what are Alice and Rory?"

"My best friends, duh. Are you coming or not?" Alex dismissed, taking both of their backpacks and climbing through her broken window. She could see the wet carpet from her earlier expedition with the bathroom pipes and many of the souvenirs were strung out across the room, knocked over from their shelves.

She heard Ryan make his way through as well, but the guy was relentless. "So I'm the equivalent of Alice and Rory. Huh. You know, I really didn't know we had that close of a bond. . .I wonder what would happen if we got any closer," he mulled, looking behind the locked counters.

He shuffled through a few boxes of items, looking in the jewelry case, but Alex was too busy trying to stray the idiot from the topic and trying to save her dignity. "For a person who almost died, you sure have a big ego. I wonder how we get into the cave entrance," Alex diverted again.

Ryan might have pocketed something, but Alex couldn't see to tell for sure. He pointed to the sign above a door to the right. "Right there. See, 'Cave Entrance'. And near death makes a man reevaluate his life."

Alex pressed her lips together, forcing her blush down. What on earth was wrong with her? She sighed and headed for the obvious door with Ryan close behind and pushed it open, surprised to find that it wasn't locked. A cold wall of air hit them from the cave's atmosphere as they made their way into the faintly lit, brown cave. Alex could see lamps that had been set up in the cave to allow a light source.

She tried to walk down the next set of rock stairs, but Ryan pushed her aside and stood in her way. "What the Hades, Ryan?" Alex snapped, trying to shove him out of the way.

His grip on the wall was firm, though, and didn't do anything. Then, suddenly, Ryan pressed her up against the rock wall, not allowing Alex to move any further. Alex was about to protest when Ryan's lips slammed against hers, full of need and some other emotion that Alex couldn't identify.

And oh, it felt so good and calming. She could stay like that forever, subconsciously kissing him back, feeling the protection that Ryan would always give her. But it was wrong. They were meant to be enemies.

She stopped and realized her hands had made their way to his singed hair, ruffling it with emotion. Ryan pulled back with a dazed look on his face, but he leaned close to her ear. "Alexandria Hayden, I am nothing without you. And whatever happens once we open these doors to the Underworld, know that. Please. I need you."

His voice sounded like a man who'd just about lost his reason to live. His eyes held nothing but yearning for Alex to say yes, she'd always be there for him regardless of what happened. She belonged to him and no one else.

But Alex didn't have the time to make a response. Behind them, a black trail made of dust was swirling on the floor, whispering "This way, this way," in a faint voice.

Ryan's eyes followed Alex's gaze, and he pulled the thick key out of his pocket. Alex watched as, like a magnet, the black dust pulled Ryan on the way. So quick, that Alex had to jog to keep up with Ryan, not even having time to admire the wondrous parts of the cave.

Finally, they stopped in front of a giant stalagmite. Or was it stalactite? Whatever it was, the white pointed mass of mineral deposits started to glow with a silver and black outline, its shine reflecting on the cave walls behind her. The spiral pressed in on the middle, requesting an entry confirmation in the shape of a keyhole.

Ryan gave her one last look and Alex tried to pass the things left unsaid, but Ryan was a guy, after all, and there was no guarantee that he actually understood. He grasped the key and stuck it in the lock and turned.

Alex's breath hitched as the door released the key back into Ryan's hand and collapsed open, revealing a dark, shadowing cavern. It was at this moment that she realized that Elizabeth Sinclair had never specified exactly where in the Underworld this door opened to.

Personally, Alex was hoping for Hades's fortress itself.

Alex's hand found Ryan's as they crossed to the other side of the world, both of them praying that the other would make it through wherever they were headed.


End file.
